“绝学无忧”之位置及其义涵

On the Place of the Phrase "Reject the Teaching of the Young,and Thereby Suffer No Distress" and Its Connotations

"绝学无忧"向属《老子》20章,但明清以来,人们对它的位置开始有了争议,迄今产生过六种不同看法。其中呼声最高的,是划归19章末的做法。但从版本、文法、义理考察,"绝学无忧"都应依传统置于20章章首。把它划归19章末,是砍20章之龙首充作19章之蛇足。"绝学"不是什么都不学,也不是学至于无学。"绝学"是绝所当绝,学所当学,即绝弃俗学,转而做日损的为道工夫。

The phrase "reject the teaching of the young, and thereby suffer no distress"(jue xue wu you) comes in stanza 20, Laozi, which, however, leads to some disputes since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Up till now, six kinds of different viewpoints have been advocated in terms of the place of this phrase in the book, among which the most influential one is to classify that into the end of stanza 19. However, the investigation into the editions,the writing styles and the argumentation confirms that this phrase should be placed at the beginning of stanza 20 as an indispensable part compared with its redundant place at the end of stanza 19."jue xue" neither means to learn nothing, nor to learn till nothing can be learnt. In contrast, it means to banish what should be banished and learn what should be learned. To put it more clearly, it means to banish secular learning and make efforts in transforming what diminishes daily into the Dao.